Civic stuck in park - what's the deal with this problem?

Hi, I just had my 2007 Civic lock itself in park several times and I
was barely able to get it back to Drive so I could get to and from
work today.

I dug through the manual and found the little trick called the Shift
Lock Release, which is a little slot right above the shift lever. You
remove this cover - about 1/8" x 3/4" and push the key into it and
then you can move the lever into neutral, start the car, then put it
into reverse or drive.
My question is, how common is this problem, what causes it, and why is
it SO common that Honda even put this little slot there so you can
deal with the problem relatively easily? Apparently this is a problem
they have been having for some time, so they invented this little slot
to help the owner over-ride the problem at least temporarily. So how
long has this been going on?
The manual says this is an indication that something is going wrong
with the transmission.
What should I expect when I take it into the shop on Monday?
I bought Honda because it is supposed to be so reliable. Having a
problem like this one year in, isn't a good sign...

Um....let's see.....over 20 years now, ever since 60 Minutes
manufactured the Audi "problem" so they could sell advertising.
You never, ever noticed this before? You never read your owner's
manual? You never wondered "gee, why do I have to put my foot on the
brake just so I can pull it out of Park?" You never heard the "click"
as you put your foot on the brake, the sound of the trans lock solenoid
releasing?

Quote that for us, please.
It's MUCH more likely a problem with the brake pedal switch.

I personally owned a 1979 Audi 5000S, and a little later a 1980 Audi
5000S. As a result, I got to know a fair number of other Audi owners
and drivers. I never once had a problem, nor did I ever hear of anyone
else who had a problem with 'unintended acceleration' outside of the
news stories.
This is anecdotal, I understand. But it seemed clear to me that there
wasn't any problem with the cars; the problem, if it existed, was with
the drivers. It seemed to me.
RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen

--
"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for
people to work." -- Peter Drucker

It may well have been the drivers - probably was. But that is scant
consolation when you just crushed your kid to death.
Based on the frequency which this type of accident occurred with the
5000, something was wrong with it. Might have been 100% ergonomic but
there was a problem and it wasn't unique to Audi. The shift interlock
was a good solution. Cheap, effective and it in no way interferes
with normal operation of the car (barring mechanical failure which can
occur with any system in the vehicle). Note that unintended
acceleration accidents have practically disappeared from the news. How
many lives have been saved by the 60 Minutes expose, even if the
actual cause was not strictly mechanical?
Some people just like to bitch and moan about how this is
idiot-proofing, but as long as we are allowing idiots to drive cars...
If this (idiot-proofing) is really such a problem, we should ban
automatic transmissions altogether. If you are too stupid,
incapacitated or uncoordinated to drive a manual transmission, take
the bus.

Did you ever notice how after the first time someone claimed to find a
needle in a can of Pepsi, there were ALL SORTS of other reports about
the same thing?
If you look hard enough, and if your journalist's notepad is yellow
enough, you can find anything.

Did you notice how none of those needle-in-the-Pepsi reports involved
needles being extracted from peoples' throats? The unintended
acceleration reports invariably involve a car smashed into a garage or
other unlikely object (and not a few deaths BTW.)

The journalist's job is to dig up dirt. A lot of them end up getting
buried as a result. Journalists are as important to freedom and
democracy as the military.

<snip>
I can't really argue with that, Gordon; I can't really see that it's
hurt anything, after all. I do note that unintended acceleration
accidents were not prevalent in the news for the 70 or so years of
driving before the interlock either, except for the brief flurry of Audi
stories and lawsuits.
RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen

--
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being
overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you

If there was a problem with the car itself, and if many people were
having the problem, and if it wasn't solely an Audi problem, then the
potential for the problem is still there.
That is, once the car is out of Park and into a gear, then the car could
still accelerate unintendedly.
So they mandate that the car can't go out of Park unless the brake pedal
is pressed--and the problem went away completely??
Which tells us that the problem wasn't the car at all, that there is no
such thing as unintended acceleration. The problem is and always was
idiots not operating the car correctly.

indeed.
unfortunately, this whole sorry episode is symptomatic of the way
detroit "competes". when it does so, it's not by addressing product
competence, it always does it politically. because it's cheaper.
[while that buys time, ultimately, it will be the cancer that kills the
us domestic vehicle manufacturing industry.]
red rear turn signals? amber ones cost a little more, so a few bucks
invested in lobbying ensures the nhtsa shut up and freeway fatalities
caused by signaling confusion are quietly forgotten. suv rollovers?
simply lobby for financial relief using inflated costs of product
redesign vs. the cost to gdp of killing the wage earners that typically
drive them. [and blame a tire manufacturer who's not smart enough to
grease palms.] want to nix a spectacular new product that would crush
the highly profitable 4wd market [which the japanese were mostly not at
that time interested in]? create a product scare about it and threaten
recalls! easy.
audi created a sensation in europe with their 4wd quattro. it was a
major threat to detroit if sold here. that threat had to be eliminated.

Was the Audi 5000 a domestic product? I seem to recall that the
interlock appeared on all cars - foreign and domestic -
simultaneously.

So you favor a government mandate on lens colors to protect idiots who
are easily confused by flashing lights?

Industry will always do what is cheapest, at least in the short run.
The Interlock was the cheapest solution to the unintended acceleration
problem. Lobbying against it would have been more expensive and would
have done nothing to reduce the problem.
SUVs are (were?) a cash cow and the redesign is expensive and
interferes with their intended use (i.e. looking macho and tough and
sitting high above other traffic.) So industry went the lobby route
on this one.

SUVs flipping over is a real problem. The media helped promote the
idea that these vehicles were safer than cars while sweeping real
safety concerns under the rug.

Are you talking about the Audi 5000 incident? SUVs were a niche
market back then and the quattro was hardly a threat to the Bronco.

exactly how??? it doesn't affect throttle or idle control in any way.
it doesn't over-ride the engine computer in any way. what is the
mechanism for /how/ this is supposed to address a so-called "unwanted
acceleration" problem???

I think you hit the nail on the head, Jim... The so-called "unwanted
acceleration" problem with the Audi (et al) WASN'T. It occurred due to
either driver error or, possibly, ergonomic design. Kinda like gun
deaths. It ain't the gun that kills, it's the person in whose hands it
lies that does the killing - intentional or otherwise.
Those "accidents" occurred when the vehicle was placed into gear and the
drivers, thinking they were putting their foot on the brake, instead
placed them on the accelerator. The interlock, requiring that the brake
pedal is depressed before the transmission can be moved from Park to
Drive or Reverse, at least insures that the "loose nut" behind the
steering wheel has their foot on the brake rather than the gas. What
happens after they get the car in gear and remove their foot from the
brake pedal is on them.
Anyone ever hear of a documented case of a car running wild after the
interlocks were made standard or, alternatively, somebody driving
peacefully down the road at 45 m/h and have their car suddenly red line
for no apparent reason?

yes, absolutely. and the interlock did damn-all to prevent it. my
grandmother had an intersection crash with her lincoln continental.
part of the dash panel in the footwell fell down and was bridging the
gas and brake pedals. the motor is stronger than the brakes.
inspection reveals this could easily happen on any of these vehicles.
neither ford corporate nor the local dealer would return her calls or
letters.
has anyone launched a smear campaign to stop them importing their filthy
"market-dominating, profit competing innovations" from mexico? no,
they're "domestic"! has there been a move for legislation to connect
the gas pedal to the child safety locks to prevent recurrence [or
something equally unrelated]? no. and both are totally unrelated to
ford's prolific lobbying...

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